'Thou Shalt Kill' Review: An Killer Concept Too Good For The Genre

When it comes to director Richard Friendman’s latest horror-themed outing, there isn’t much to unpack. Actor Vince Lozano (Pirates of the Caribbean, TNT’s The Last Ship) plays a crazed priest/serial killer targeting those who he has deemed to be sinful. He quickly comes upon actress Augie Duke’s Shannon Donner - a woman who’s not only trying to stave off an alcohol addiction but is also going through the tribulations of a nasty divorce against her ex-wife Jamie Donner (played by Delilah Andre). Upon hearing some bad news regarding the custody battle over their son, Shannon takes to the bottle again and when she is distracted by her own personal weakness, the executioner comes-a-knocking. Surprisingly, the interactions between these two becomes the crux of this movie. A religion-obsessed killer who finds satisfaction from the fear of others and a woman who has nothing left to fear. Unfortunately, everything else that tries to find a place in Thou Shalt Kill falls short.

Writer Nathan Illsley really brought an interesting character to the table in Jamie Donner. It’s refreshing to see a female character who is not deathly afraid of the main antagonist like in so many other productions of this genre. After the initial shock subsides regarding the situation that Lozano’s character has put her in, Jamie plops herself down psychologically speaking and even manages to go tit for tat with the killer, conversation wise. Her fearlessness weakens his tough exterior and she even goes on to question him about if God would approve of what he’s doing to others. Lozano, on the other hand, rides the ups and downs of being a villain with no struggle.

He turns the intensity up in his demeanor within a moment’s notice but when it’s time to take a verbal punch from the protagonist, he also knows how to show a crack forming while maintaining the presence of a threat. This consistent back and forth - all emanating from the inside of a small and tight environment (the inside of a car) - really draws the viewer in. It’s a dangerous intimate game between these two and I was always listening intently, eager to see where the conversation would go next - especially from inside the mind of a deluded killer. Even so, I had to remind myself that this was a low-budget horror movie. Eventually we would have to get back to the movie’s run of the mill story. But in saying that - this drawn-out midpoint sequence is Thou Shalt’s Kill’s greatest strength - showing conversation between two dangerous personalities. It’s as if Taxicab Confessions from the mid 90s on HBO was haphazardly fused with 2023’s Sympathy for the Devil. It’s carelessly violent in the psychological department but eerily fun at the same time.

Inserted throughout the movie are flashbacks showing Lozano’s killer dishing his own twisted type of justice on others. While this is obviously meant to strengthen the villain’s menacing persona, the literal detail when it comes to the gore has a lot left to be desired - and that’s coming from a horror genre novice. The stabbing motions have the articulation of a claw machine, the slicing and the blood spurts look like they were bought from a discount Halloween store and the few severed limbs flap around like raw meat with no bone inside. If it wasn’t for the immersive interactions between Lozano and Duke, these cheap effect instances would end up having a much more terrible effect on the trance this movie does hold. Luckily, these shoddy techniques don’t go all the way to the ending though. As the much anticipated fight takes place, better camera work is done to hide the inferior prop work . . . which in turns makes this finale sequence much more enjoyable.

After watching the entirety of Thou Shalt Kill and seeing everything it has to offer - I have to wonder if it would have worked better as a short film. Various points of exposition were handed to the viewer in the beginning of the movie which dragged the introduction. Only two plot elements mattered in that time frame and the rest could have been cut to focus more on a mysterious/ tense interaction between Duke and Lozano’s characters. Shannon’s son could have been revealed during the car ride which would have jolted audiences. The movie could have started right when Shannon was waking up in the backseat of the car - explicitly connecting her experience with the audience and making for more of a dire mystery. While the ending tries to add to the mysticism, the clichéd closing moments weaken the impact of everything that came beforehand.

Like I said, the middle of this 2025 thriller is memorable - the concept that it presents to the viewer, anyway. Two entities that both carry demons on their shoulder (in their own way) have a discourse - sometimes harsh and at other times, suspiciously calm. Whether they come from a place of visceral quality or storytelling choices, the elements that come before and after that though are just not on the same level. You can tell that Thou Shalt Kill wants so desperately to be something more than just a surface-level horror movie but it’s cons unfortunately keep it from rising above the rest in the genre.

I will give Thou Shalt Kill a ⅗.